Long-serving JP Morgan fund manager Martin Hudson has stepped down as manager of the Mercantile investment trust immediately and will leave the firm later this year.
Mr Hudson had been manager of the trust for 25 years and it will now be managed by the two co-managers Guy Anderson and Anthony Lynch.
The £1.5bn Mercantile investment trust has returned 56 per cent over the past five years, compared with 29 per cent for the average trust in the AIC UK All Companies sector in the same time period.
The more recent performance of the trust has been muted however, losing 17 per cent in 2018, compared with an average loss for the sector of 7 per cent, according to data from FE Analytics.
The trust's chairman Angus Gordon Lennox said: “Martin has worked as part of the company's investment management team for over 25 years and we are hugely grateful for everything that he has contributed; not only is he a highly skilled investor, but he has also been an exceptional ambassador for the Mercantile. We wish him well in the future."
Mr Hudson has been an employee of JP Morgan since 1982, working on a range of UK equity funds and as an analyst.
david.thorpe@ft.com
